She Understands
by Alesford
Summary: It's complete happenstance that they run into each other three years after graduation. Faberry one-shot. Follow-up to "Just a Lima Loser".


**A/N: During another slow day at work, I managed to churn out this follow-up piece to "Just a Lima Loser". It's a one-shot Faberry future!fic. As always, please review if you read.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own "Glee".**

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**She Understands**

It's complete happenstance that they run into each other three years after graduation. Quinn didn't plan it and Rachel didn't prepare for it. God, Quinn decides, finds amusement in tugging at heartstrings she thought had long since been snipped.

The weather is not under her control when an unexpected blizzard grounds all flights out of JFK the day she returns stateside from a semester abroad in France. It's sheer dumb luck that she finds a decent (and decently cheap) hotel in which to stay, and it's frighteningly coincidental that she steps into the elevator with a person practically giving away tickets to Broadway's newest show because a family emergency rendered them inconvenient to the original buyer. The show in which Rachel Berry is to make her debut as a lead performer.

Quinn wonders if there is some sort of cosmic irony to all of it as she takes her seat front and center of the theater. She holds a single rose draped across her lap, right next to the playbill held firmly in her other hand as the lights dim and the music begins. It's only when she hears that first sung note that she releases the breath she didn't know she was holding. It's the same voice she remembers from high school, and yet it is somehow more controlled and more mature than she recalls.

She watches the play with rapt attention and when it's over she feels vindicated in her high school justifications; Rachel Berry never belonged in Lima, Ohio.

She struggles with the decision to stand outside the stage doors or throw the flower on the stage and run for the hills. Her feet decide for her without consulting her brain and she finds herself trapped amidst a sea of screaming fans trying to catch a glimpse of stardom. After a minute of waiting, Quinn is ready to punch and scream and fight her way out of the crowd to return to her (decently) comfortable hotel room. Before she can start, however, the doors open and there she is—Rachel Barbra Berry, three years older and with actual traces of humility and modesty touching her features.

Quinn isn't quite sure what her plan of action was once Berry was out in the open. Scream her name? Rush against the crowd? She's still mostly a Lima Loser (more worldly thanks to her stint in Europe, but she's still going back to Ohio after this), a statistic and a forgotten name. And this girl—this talented young woman—standing before her is everything she's not. Talented, brave, lucky. Rachel Berry was never meant to be a Lima Loser.

It's random chance that Rachel looks her way just before Quinn is about to turn around—random chance that those big, brown doe eyes find those once-fiery hazel orbs that were tormenting and mocking throughout adolescence. It's an act of forgiveness when Quinn hears her name shouted over the screaming fans by a voice that could only ever belong to Rachel Berry.

She sees Rachel struggling through the groups of people asking for autographs and pictures and moves to meet her halfway. The crowd begins to give up and flock toward the other stars exiting the theater, and Rachel seems almost relieved. Quinn can't help but smile sheepishly in a way that Rachel remembers seeing only a handful of times. They greet each other with quiet and reserved 'Hello's and Quinn offers her rose to the star.

Rachel surprises her when she throws her arms around Quinn's neck and draws her into an unexpected (but not unwelcome) hug. There's a whispered 'Thank you' in her ear, and Quinn isn't sure she heard correctly above the hustle and bustle of a New York City night so she offers a questioning look when Rachel releases her from the embrace.

"I understand now," Rachel says.

Quinn can only stare, still confused, but that trademark raised brow sneaks its way into her movements and it brings an unconscious smile to Rachel's lips.

"You were sending me on my way," she adds, as if that explains it all.

Her words come rushing back to her with the memory of standing in the auditorium, confronted by Rachel's own renowned bluntness. Sharp and pointed and mean words meant to cut all ties Rachel Berry might have had at McKinley High School, and that brief, brief moment where she let her emotions slip past that vain and jealous façade.

"Do you hate me?" Quinn's voice cracks.

"Oh, Quinn," Rachel coos, and Quinn finds herself quickly gathered in Rachel's arms again. They stay like that for a while, soaking in one another's presence and warmth as the people disperse around them and the world seems to melt away. When Rachel pulls back, her eyes find Quinn's and she repeats herself, softer this time, "I understand now." They're three words meant only for her, and Quinn is finally caught up.

She dips her head as Rachel tilts hers to meet halfway and lips brush against lips in a tentative kiss. Quinn thinks this may be a foot forward to redemption and away from the future she fears Lima holds for her. Rachel knows this is just another step toward the life of happiness and success of which she always dreamed.

It's Rachel's turn to push and pull because she believes with all her heart that Quinn doesn't belong in Lima, Ohio either.

Quinn won't become another Lima Loser; Rachel Berry won't allow it.

She understands now.


End file.
